Yannis Economides’ ‘Stratos’ (Mikro Psari) in competition at the Berlinale

The Berlin International Film Festival announced some of the films that will be participating ‘in competition’ in 2014. Among them, next to titles by Alain Resnais and Wes Anderson, we find ‘Stratos’ by Yannis Economides.

The film, titled ‘Mikro Psari’ (Little Fish) in Greece, follows the story of Stratos, who works the nightshift at a bakery, and is a contract killer by day. He’s trying to raise funds to organize the escape of Leonidas, the friend who saved him while he was in jail. He owes him his life, and Stratos isn’t one to forget. Along the way, the film’s hero comes to realize that he has more debts than he had thought. So he maps out a new, detailed plan, one final job.

Cinematography is by Dimitris Katsaitis and film editing by Yannis Chalkiadakis. Sound was recorded by Dinos Kittou and William Ed. Franck and mixed by Costas Fylaktidis. Costume design and set direction are by Ioulia Stavridou.Giannis Pamoukis did make-up. The film’s soundtrack was composed by Babis Papadopoulos, guitarist with the seminal Greek rock band Trypes.

Apart from Economides’ film, the other competition titles that were announced today were ‘71’ by Yann Demange from the UK, ‘Aimer, Boire et Chanter’ by Alain Resnais from France, Claudia Llosa’s ‘Aloft’ (a Spanish, Canadian and French co-production), Dominik Graf’s ‘Die geliebten Schwestern’ (Germany), Wes Anderson’s ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ – which we already knew about – and George Clooney’s ‘The Monuments Men’.

For the ‘Berlinale Special’ section, the screenings were announced for Pascal Chaumeil ‘A Long Way Down’ (UK) and the Australian Anthology film ‘The Turning’, and for thedocumentaries ‘Entente Cordiale’ by Hubert Sauper (France/Austria) and ‘The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden’ by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller (U.S.)